Pay more to buy house in Delhi

Brace yourself to shell out more for purchasing property in the Capital.
On Monday, the Sheila Dikshit government raised the registration fees that property buyers need to pay to have their purchase documents authenticated.
Currently, buyers have to

Brace yourself to shell out more for purchasing property in the Capital.

On Monday, the Sheila Dikshit government raised the registration fees that property buyers need to pay to have their purchase documents authenticated.

Currently, buyers have to pay a flat Rs 100 as registration fees to buy property of any size. Now, this rate will go up to Rs 50,000. Property buyers are expected to add Rs 100 crore to the state exchequer after the hike, revenue officials said.

With this move, the Delhi government has resorted once again to increasing taxes. Last month public outrage had forced the government to partially roll back huge tax hikes announced in the annual state budget.

Dikshit cited a crippling funds crunch when she imposed massive tax hikes in the budget that finance officials had hoped would add Rs 1,130 crore to the kitty.

However, taxes on key commodities such as tea, coffee, domestic gas cylinders and CNG were later withdrawn partially or in full. This set back the government's tax mop up target by an estimated Rs 200 crore.

A senior finance official said the rollback is now being offset by subsequent tax hikes and increase in charges for key services the government provides.

The increase in property registration fee was approved by the state cabinet on Monday along with relatively lesser hikes in registration fees for will, gift deed and other similar services. Buyers pay registration fees and stamp duty when they purchase a property, with the stamp duty being the major charge they have to foot.

Till now, the across-the-board registration fee of Rs 100 put a negligible burden on property buyers. But now they will have to pay differentially depending on the size of property, said a senior revenue official.

"They'll have to pay 1 per cent of the price they would pay to buy the property or one per cent of the circle rate for the area, whichever is less," said a senior revenue official.

For example, a person paying Rs 30 lakh for a house earlier paid Rs 100 to register documents such as the sale deed for the transaction.

"Now he will have to pay Rs 30,000 to have the sale deed registered," said a revenue official.

Apart from the sale deed of properties, the increased registration fee will also be applicable on gift deeds and conveyance deeds of immovable properties in Delhi.

The government has also revised the charges of registration of wills and other such instruments.

The new rates will soon come into effect with a notification by the lieutenant governor.

Revenue minister Rajkumar Chauhan said the existing registration fee has been in force since 1964.

"It was due for revision for a long time," he said.

The state government is also working out an increase in circle rates that will subsequently push up property prices, said a revenue official.

The revised circle rates that revenue officials said could be enforced next month will earn them at least Rs 400 crore more.

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